Rat City ‘Rithmetic

Significant questions remain about the costs and implications of Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels’ proposal the city annex a large swath south of the Seattle known as North Highline, despite an analysis recently released by Nickels’ office.

The county and mayor have not yet met several of the City Council’s key demands for considering Nickels’ plan to take in an area with 32,000 residents from White Center to Burien, a city staffer advised a council committee Wednesday afternoon.

For one, there’s not yet been a clear commitment to take care of the expensive repairs needed to the nearby 1st Ave. bridge from King County, which hopes to unload numerous unincorporated urban areas into cities better equipped to serve them.

Also, a recent projection from the mayor’s office that the annexation could cost the city roughly $6 million in transitional costs leaves out substantial potential expenses, such as mandatory library and fire station costs.

Also incomplete is the projection that the area would cost Seattle taxpayers another $5 million annually on ongoing costs consider eve. For example, it doesn’t include some parks maintenance.

They’re “high-level ball park estimate” made with good intentions but without detailed study, she said. “They weren’t very well refined numbers. They had to make some pretty big estimates on the revenues.”

Finally, the mayor’s plan for covering the costs assumes the state Legislature will hand over millions of dollars in sales taxes.

The city has agreed with Burien and county officials to come up with a plan for the area by the end of this year. If city politicians decide they want that area, residents will have the final vote in an election as soon as Nov. 2007.